Before opening fire with a semi-automatic handgun and claiming the lives of six college students in Isla Vista, near the UC Santa Barbara campus, there were many troubling signs the shooter was a danger to our community.

After watching videos posted to his YouTube page describing the desire to attack and kill people, the shooter’s mother grew so concerned that she alerted local law enforcement, requesting a welfare check. Unfortunately at the time, sheriff’s deputies did not have the ability to act on his mother’s well-founded fears and remove the three semi-automatic weapons and dozens of rounds of ammunition later found in his apartment.

Santa Barbara state legislators decided to change that in California. And I’m pushing the nation and Congress to follow their lead.

After the 2014 Isla Vista shooting, then-Assemblyman Das Williams and state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson got the Legislature to pass a gun violence restraining order (GVRO) law, which now allows law enforcement and family members to petition a judge to temporarily remove firearms and bar individuals from purchasing guns who represent a threat to themselves or others.

As an alumnus of UCSB who also represents Isla Vista in Congress, I know the lifesaving impact this legislation can have in a community. Last year, Santa Barbara County issued 21 GVROs, all with the potential to stop a shooting.

Unfortunately, this extremely effective tool remains underutilized in California. Sacramento County, with over 1 million more residents, issued just nine GVROs over the same period. Ventura County has only issued four GVROs in the past two years.

That’s why I have introduced the GVRO Act in Congress — to bring attention to this lifesaving measure on the South Coast as well as encourage every state in the nation to introduce similar measures.

GVRO laws strike a delicate balance between providing due process to individuals while protecting communities. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have both publicly supported the implementation of GVRO laws in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting and the impressive advocacy by students across the country.

The majority of gun violence deaths rarely make national headlines, including the one my family experienced. As a 12-year-old boy, I found my eldest sister after she took her own life with a firearm in our home.

Suicide by firearm claims the lives of 59 Americans each day on average, and this is another way in which the GVRO Act has the potential to save lives. If you have concerns about a loved one with access to firearms, speakforsafety.org is a helpful resource to learn more about California’s GVRO law.

After our state experienced its most recent mass shooting in Thousand Oaks that devastatingly claimed the lives of 12 victims, California is not waiting around to see if another mass shooting will happen. The state Office of Emergency Services this month announced it is distributing grants available to every county to hire full-time employees trained to help mass shooting victims.

There is, of course, not one solution to our nation’s gun violence crisis, but that is no excuse for inaction.

With the newly elected Democratic majority entering Congress in the new year, we have an opportunity to pass comprehensive background checks on all gun sales, increase funding for mental health, and finally do more than hold moments of silence to reduce gun-related deaths. I am working closely with our next speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, as well as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has introduced the GVRO Act in the Senate, to pass this legislation early in next year’s session.

Entering a new era of divided federal government, I am confident the GVRO Act is one measure we can find common ground on and see over the finish line.

Editor: The original version of this column incorrectly stated the type of weapon used by the Isla Vista shooter.

Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, represents a portion of Ventura County in his 24th Congressional District.